Smile Number Seven by Melissa Price

Author:Melissa Price [Price, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642470383
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2019-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

In the outer desert beyond Palm Springs, Julia tapped the accelerator of the sports car and zigged around a truck. She checked her rearview mirror for cops, then without any traffic ahead, she floored it. I could get used to this! Ugh, exactly what I was afraid of.

At this rate she’d be home in no time. But she wasn’t ready to admit her lust for this car to anyone—especially not to Rina. Where she came from, a car like this stood out. She couldn’t imagine her life without the Fiat Spider. Grandmother Lucia had given it to her for her sixteenth birthday, and a day hadn’t passed since then that she didn’t think of Lucia when she drove it. It was once a nice car. But how would she fend off comments from all the nosy friends and neighbors who might ask her about this sexy beast? Whatever she came up with, it would have to be something that Cass would back her up on.

She zagged back into the other lane. I’ve got it! I’ll just say that Vitty bought it. She smiled at her ingenuity. Note to self: remember to tell Vitty she bought a car!

In the waning of the day, Julia inhaled the wide-open space, the stillness that lay upon jagged mountain faces along which the last light dripped down through fissures, illuminating dark breaches. The desert’s hush was such a stark contrast to her experience of Malibu’s chronic perpetual waves.

Interspersed in her thoughts were flashbacks of the weekend. Waking up to the indigo Pacific. Waking up to Katarina in her luxurious bed. The sensation of her lover’s arms wrapped tightly around her—her hands everywhere on Julia’s body—as they stared out to sea together, their silent ballet a feast of taste, of touch…

The recollection unlocked her sensation of longing and made the tiny fine hairs on the back of her neck rise.

The talk they’d had on the beach had stuck with her. Being with Rina was easier than anything she’d ever experienced, but she couldn’t shake the notion that existing in Katarina Verralta’s world wouldn’t be easy. Not that she expected easy. She wasn’t yet sure, however, that she had what it would take to meet the challenge.

The morning of their dinner party, when they had left Malibu to shop on Rodeo Drive, Clay and Gigi had accompanied them. “Come over here,” Clay had said, taking her hand when some of the tourists started turning their cell phones in their direction.

God forbid anyone would assume Rina and I were together.

She asked herself what it would take to walk away from this before they became even more involved—before she fell in love any harder. Too late on both counts! She squashed the demon-thought of ending things like a bug hitting the windshield of the sports car, which was now cruising at ninety. Splat!

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